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Welcome back to our Friday Night Lights rewatch, y’all!
Last week, Mandy C. asked which character I connected most with on my first watch and if that has changed during this rewatch. I have been thinking about this for a week now, and what I remember connecting with most on my first watch was the entire atmosphere of high school football culture in Dillon vibing with my experience of football in high school more than one specific character. I still think that, but I relate to the Taylor parents more on this rewatch, so that’s a definite change.
Last week in our rewatch, Buddy learned that actions have consequences, Lyla was jealous over her fiancé making a female friend, Eric got a job offer, Smash and Waverly had some issues, and Tami and Tyra have a moment during some challenging circumstances. Before we get into this week’s episode, let’s revisit the drinking game!
The Official FYA Friday Night Lights Season 1 Drinking Game
Drink once every time:
You want to give Matt Saracen a hug
Tami Taylor drinks a glass of white wine
Tami Taylor says “y’all”
Landry Clarke goes off on a tangent
You’re Team Tyra Collette
Buddy Garrity makes you roll your eyes
You think, “It’s JUST football, people.”
The quick camera cuts make you reach for the Dramamine
Drink twice every time:
The Panthers score a touchdown
Tim Riggins makes poor choices
There’s a classic Coach Taylor pep talk
Grandma Saracen says something sassy
Take a shot every time you hear:
“Clear eyes, full hearts, can’t lose!”
“Texas Forever.”
Finish your drink when:
Hands slap the Panther “P”
Jason’s incident happens
Book club admits they don’t read the book
On to the episode!
1.19 “Ch-Ch-Ch-Ch-Changes”
Julie is absolutely not on board with moving to Austin, despite Eric’s awkward attempts to sell Austin’s artsy culture to him. Tami insists that despite this Austin argument, the two will be attending the father-daughter dance. In the parking lot at the father-daughter dance, Eric and Julie have a heart-to-heart about Austin that ends with a hug and them going into the dance. At the end of the episode, Eric tells TMU he and his family need some time to decide.
Tami creates a plan for Tyra’s future where she can finish high school in a way that lets her go to college that includes tutoring at the Taylors’ with Tami, which Tyra is initially unsure of but quickly gets on board with. After talking with Tami about her daughter’s future and picking Tyra up from tutoring, Angela tells Tyra there is no way they can afford for her to go to college and she shouldn’t be having these dreams. By the end of the episode, however, Angela has come around and crashes the father-daughter dance with Tyra in a grand gesture to tell Tyra she will do whatever she can to help Tyra achieve her dreams.
Jason learns he will not be going to Beijing as part of the quad rugby team. While talking to Suzy at the afterparty, she tells him she has an errand to run near Dillon and can give him a ride back home if he doesn’t want to stay in town waiting for Herc, which he accepts. On a stop along the way home, Jason tells Suzy about how he and Lyla got engaged, and this conversation takes a swerve into Jason kissing Suzy. A few days later, Lyla stops by Jason’s house because he’s been avoiding her calls, and they get into an argument when she learns Suzy gave him a ride back to Dillon. When Lyla asks him if he still wants to be engaged to her, he pauses before replying that he doesn’t know. Later, Jason tries to buy beer but is carded like the high school student he is, while Riggins presents a fake ID and buys his and Street’s beers. Smash and Matt are waiting outside, and Jason goes with the three to the football field, where the four talk about life and end up playing football and practicing plays for the upcoming game.
Pre-football field excursion, Waverly explains to Smash that she was diagnosed as bipolar and was in a treatment program last year and not in Africa, and Smash is not handling this news well. Meanwhile, Jackie needs Tim watch Bo for a bit after school because of a work thing. When Tim arrives to pick Bo up at school, he threatens the other students picking on Bo and then teaches Bo to fight. Jackie eventually agrees to the fighting lesson, and Tim is invited to movie night. Riggins ends the night by kissing her, which she objects to because he’s a kid in high school. However, when the two talk the next day and Riggins apologizes for kissing her, she kisses him back and brings him inside her house, telling him Bo can never know.
Meanwhile, Buddy is creating a family photo book of happier times with some help from Lyla, who insists she doesn’t want to take sides. When he later shows up at the family home to give Pam the photo book, Pam won’t take it and shuts the front door on him. Lyla tells her mom that she’s not taking sides but it was just one mistake, but Pam tells her it was far more than one mistake. Lyla then goes and yells at Buddy, who’s been standing on the other side of the door this entire time, to leave. Later, Lyla goes to her father’s closed dealership, gets into a car that’s for sale, and proceeds to drive into multiple cars and the dealership itself before leaving the car in the dealership window and walking off.
How many times do I have to take a drink?
14!
Did the Panthers win?
It was an off week while the Panthers prepare for their next playoff game, giving Matt plenty of time to overthink and overanalyze his QB1 abilities.
MVP of the Week
I loved Coach Taylor the most this week. He started off this episode telling both Tami and Julie hey, we’re moving to Austin for this new job, to the great chagrin of Julie. By the end of the episode, though, he was listening to what both Tami and Julie had to say, and the episode ended with him telling TMU he needed a little time because they had to make this decision as a family. And that, friends, is growth when, as Julie pointed out, the job offer is a career goal Eric has wanted for forever. The moment he and Julie had just before the father-daughter dance and during the dance was very sweet, also.
The Football Play of the Week
There may not have been a Panthers game this week, but of course there was still football. I loved the whole scene(s) of Riggins, Street, Smash, and Matt taking their beer (PSA: underage drinking is still wrong and ill-advised) to the football field to hang out for it to turn into them playing football and hanging out all night. In addition to reminding me of a scene where two vampire brothers go to a football field at night to toss a football around (as a ploy to suss out a secret plans, but that’s beside the point), it was a great moment of camaraderie that felt so accurate for these four guys to go from talking about life generally to talking about football to practicing football in the course of the evening.
Best Taylor Couple Moment
I know it was largely part of a plot to get Julie to go to the father-daughter dance, but Eric and Tami dancing together in the living room was very cute, and I appreciated Tami demanding that the two go to the father-daughter dance together so she’ll have photos of them dressed up for the event.
Tim Riggins’ Finest Moment
The way Riggins cares about and interacts with Bo in this episode is very cute, but this moment is iconic. If you search “Texas forever” in any GIF search, this moment is what comes up as the most prevalent image. It’s also a great moment between Riggins and Street as they reaffirm their friendship after a night of friends and football specifically and everything that’s happened between them generally.
The Taylor Advice of the Week
Tami encouraging both Tyra and Angela that a future where Tyra goes to college is very possible and her obvious belief in that future, even if Tyra and Angela were unsure, was convicting and further evidence of her being a great guidance counselor.
Post-Game Breakdown
- Smash, just because your girlfriend has a mental health condition does not make her “crazy,” and calling her that while talking to your friends is uncool.
- Jason, sorry, but of course you weren’t going to make the rugby quad team this time around. Like Herc pointed out, you’ve been in that wheelchair for a hot minute and have a lot of adapting and learning still to go.
- Speaking of Jason, the writing is absolutely on the wall for him and Lyla to break up in the near future.
- I loved the progression of Tyra and her mom being unsure about Tyra being able to achieve this collegiate goal to committing to work on achieving that goal, even if they took separate paths to arrive at that goal together (and especially crashing the father-daughter dance as part of that path).
Next week is “Mud Bowl,” which will be recapped by Kandis! This is arguably one of the most memorable season 1 episodes, so my question to Kandis and readers is what is your favorite part of this episode and why?
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Gotta agree – I’m OBSESSED with the scene of all the boys heading to the field and just playing for the love of the game – especially because it sets up Jason’s mentorship of nervous Nellie Matt Saracen. Such a great scene!!